What a crowd... Happy Noon Year's everyone!

The 1st ball drop of the day complete with confetti canon and giant rolls of bubble wrap to stomp on (it's a little safer than fireworks).

Post bubble wrap stomp... the aftermath. Clean up is going to be fun today!

A little girl dancing all over the bubble wrap making sure she we didn't miss one.

Vern's mini-train. Mr. Vern comes and gives rides to the kids at all our special events.

Me with the white feathers in my hair and Miss Stephanie dancing with the kiddos @ one of the Little League performances. Yeah Little League! It was a packed house in the theater. Rocky Mountian News and I believe Channel 4 News were here taking some shots of the dancers.

Today is New Year's Eve or as we call it around here Noon Year's Eve. Noon Years is one of our biggest Events. The museum is open from 9-2 with ball drops every hour on the hour. We also have special storytimes with Lars the Polar Bear, theater performances by our good friends Little League and Dr. Noise, cookie decorating, noise maker making, 2009 party glasses, party hat making, and much more. It's been a fun filled day to say the least. We're still going strong and we've had 2,000+ visitors thus far. We're still waiting for the final counts and we're hoping cross your fingers for a record breaker over last years 2,500 guests. Here are a few shots of the action through out the day. Enjoy!

Bowling pictures...

Jesse showing off his bowling form.

Me attempting to throw the ball that is obviously to heavy. Notice my lack in form.

Jesse watching his ball roll down the lane while Christina's son Logan sets down and watches his ball roll down the lane as well.

Me once again attempting to use a ball that is to heavy. I couldn't find the right weight.

An action shot of Jesse hurling his ball down the lanes. I believe this was one of the times he got a strike.

More X-mas photos

Me watching Jesse tear into his presents @ Grandpa Ron's for the McBroom Christmas.

Me holding up my lovely bath set that I got from my cousin Loden for Christmas. I tried it out last night and it was marvelous. A nice relaxing bath with a bath pillow is just the thing when you're feeling icky. Thanks Loden!

Jesse holding up the Dark Knight movie I got him as a suprise gift for Christmas morning.

Jesse opening our present from Dave & Chels. Thanks guys! I've really been wanting one for a while now. The only problem is it wouldn't fit in our luggage. Bummer! Thanks Mom for shipping it to us. We hope to have it hanging in our living room by the end of the week.

L to R Front Row: Mom, Me, Jesse & L to R Back Row: Dad, Dave, Chelsey on Christmas morning

A little update on the guys...

Ideal Fathers were sad to hear that their good friend and drummer Paddy had to quit the band. Jesse took it pretty hard since he and Paddy are good friends, but we wish Paddy all the best. The guys are currently doing some auditions, because they aren't willing to give up now. They've grown immensely over the last year. They're one of Denver's best up and coming bands. I know they won't let this set back stop them. While searching out a new drummer they will be saving up to have their albums pressed and this Spring when the weather lets up a bit they will be printing some new shirts too. He was hoping to have them printed by Christmas, so we could make gifts for some people... but that unfortunately mother nature had another idea. Jesse was able to print up some great shirts & hoodies for the recording studio where they recorded their music. I think this made him feel better about their shirts not turning out. Music and screen printing are this 2 passions. Practice for the guys continues and maybe now it will get back on a regular schedule. Paddy had a weird work schedule which caused their normally regular 2 nights (Wed & Sun) a week practice schedule to become screwy. I am excited to see what wonderful things Ideal Fathers have to look forward to in the near future.

Christmas Trip

Last time I was a little Debbie Downer, so this time I'm going to share some good thoughts.

We left Denver Tuesday night the 23rd. They flight was an hour delayed and we thought they lost our luggage, but after 45minutes of waiting for it we were off. Dave and Dad met us @ the Omaha airport and drove us home. Thank Goodness, because the weather turned horrendous and I would have never attempted to drive in it. We made it home safe and sound around 2:30 am on the 24th. What a trip! Thanks Dad for coming out past your bed time to get us.

Christmas Eve morning I spent wrapping all the presents we got for everyone while Jesse slept in. I eventually grew tired of this task and recruited my mother the master wrapper for help. That evening was spent @ my cousin Jeff's celebrating the Wilson Family Christmas. We did our normal pass the present game. My prize was a lovely teeny tiny radio and Jesse won a lovely wooden tic tac toe game. I ended up trading my aunt's grandson, so I actually went home with a clothing space saver bag (this came in handy when packing for the trip home).

Christmas morning we celebrated @ my parents house with Dave, Chels, Mom, Dad, Chels's mom, me, and Jesse. We had breakfast and we opened our stockings from Santa and our presents to each other. We all got lots of good stuff. Jesse got a book about Rock & Roll, an x-box controller, and the new Batman movie Dark Knight. I got the cook book I had been wanting, a giant wall clock for our apartment (which I had also been wanting), and Oliver (the musical ) on Dvd. Jesse and I were particularly excited about the gold dollar coins that Santa left us in our stockings. We're planning to add them to our change container @ home. Once the container is full we're going to cash it in and spend the money on A) something nice for the apartment or B) something fun for us like a weekend get away etc... I can not wait! If we get enough money saved up we should probably use it on payments towards a new car.

On the 26th we spent most of the day with the McBrooms @ Grandpa Ron's house. We had a lovely brunch buffet and we all took turns opening presents taking turns from youngest to oldest. I got some lovely relaxing bath stuff and Jesse got a nice watch and a gift card to Target. Perfect since Target is our neighbor. We played some Apples to Apples (a great game if you've never played it I highly recommend it). We went home and napped the afternoon away until it was time for Game Night @ the Shermans. It was boys (Jeff, Jesse, & Cody) verse girls (me, Gina, & Melissa). I warned them I wasn't very good, but we still had a strong team and we beat those boys to a pulp. Ha ha ha... It was really fun!

On the 27th we got up early and managed to make it to Dave's house for Breakfast despite the freezing rain. We watched some Flight of the Conchords (one of Dave's Christmas presents from us, A really good tv series from HBO) and had some delicious breakfast. Yum! We luckily made it home with out any accidents and napped some before heading into the Shermans again. Gina and the kids took us to DesMoines where Jesse attempted to spend some money that was burning a hole in his pocket, but ended up getting overwhelmed by the crowds and the chaos of all the sales so we went home empty handed. That night we had dinner with the Chelsey's family before Dave headed off to work his night shift.

Sunday the 28th I visited the grandparents by myself and let Jesse sleep in. That afternoon we went bowling with my friend Christina and her family. Jesse did beat me for the 2nd time ever, but to be fair he cheated the 1st game, beat me the 2nd, and we didn't get to finish the 3rd game. He was pretty excited about beating me since I always and I do mean always beat him. We used to go bowling @ least once a week and he was always feeling a little emasculated afterwards.

Monday I woke up feeling horrible. I definitely caught a nasty cold or something. UG! We packed up our stuff and went over to Grandma & Grandpa Wilson's for lunch. We ate some of the biggest tenderloins that I have ever seen (you've got to love Iowa food). Back home for some meds and naps until we needed to head out for Omaha. We made it to Omaha in record time and ended up being an hour early... or so we thought. Turns out there was a scheduling change (apparently not the same thing as a delay, though it seemed that way to me). When we checked in they said our flight was on time set to leave @ 8:15pm, but when we scheduled it we were supposed to leave @ 7:29pm. Weird! Anyhow we were now 2 hours early and while we waited they announced that they had overbooked our flight and they were willing to give big compensation for anyone who was willing to stay behind and catch a flight in the morning. Tempting, but we both had work. We made it in no problem and luckily Jesse's friend and awesome band mate Adam came to the rescue and picked us up. We made it home by 10pm. Whew! what a trip. Even though it was filled with lots of running around I think we really enjoyed the relaxation of being in the country & not having to work. Plus it was really great to see all you wonderful Iowans again.

Photos from top to bottom:

1. Jesse and I @ Grandpa Ron's the Day after Christmas

2. Clockwise around the table we have Ginny (eating desserts), Austrailia's Chris (you can see part of his head), Amanda, Mom, & Jesse all playing Blockus while my dad watches.

3. Amanda holding up her Kangaroo baseball player showing it off to her boyfriend Chris (infornt), her sister Jessie (peaking over the box), her brother (sitting on the couch behind her), our cousin Samantha (setting on the couch), and my dad (the one who made her the gift).

4. Me and Jesse hanging out by the Christmas tree christmas moring in my parents basement.

5. Wilson family christmas. Olivia (my cousin Scott's daughter) reading Olive the other Reindeer to all of us as we pass our presents.

Being thankful on the Holidays...

It's often hard to practice what you preach. Working with kids I'm constantly asking them what they are thankful for. We made Christmas/thank you cards the last day of class in my 2nd job and @ the museum we've been teaching a class about how sharing is caring, so we've been donating to a home (similar to Ronald McDonald house) that's for kids with cancer. Christmas is about giving not receiving, but for this Christmas all I want is for someone to give me a break. I worked so hard to get this promotion and they dangled it in my face to then rip it away for at least another 6months maybe longer, but I sure did get an extra work load for no extra money (one of the perks of working for a non-profit). Believe me I am so thankful for having a job, especially one that I enjoy so much, but I'm ready for new challenges and I really wanted this... now it may never happen. I'm worried about our holiday travels... no car (which is an entirely different story), the weatherman is predicting snow here, there, and everywhere in between only on the day we travel. Ug! DIA's plane crash has caused and uproar and runways have been shut down and tons of planes delayed. *On a side note out of the 110 crew/passengers aboard this flight only 38 were injured, 2 critically and the rest were released yesterday. The 2 critical condition women are still hanging in there and were most likely hurt worse, because of the mass chaos not the actual crash. They are expected to be doing better soon. I'm so thankful that no one was seriously injured and everyone survived. I hope they figure out the problems and fix them immediately. This may have been a scarey, but good learning experience for everyone involved.* The car problems are of course worse than I had originally hoped. The cold snap on the day the starter died was just coincidental which happend to then mask the starter problem and lead me to believe it could have been a meriad of other things (things that would have been much cheaper and easier to fix). Oh it's just my luck that they aren't. Why is it that over the Holiday season we seem to receive more bills... of course my 6month car insurance payment is due 3 days after Christmas. Santa all I only want 2 things.... Everyone & everything to give me a break for once and a little cash to pay off my bills, so I won't be broke when I get home after Christmas. Ok ok enough ranting about my problems, beacause yes they are annoying to me but they don't effect anyone else. I really am grateful for so many things. I'm grateful to my wonderful family and I wish I could see them more often, especially now while things are rough for them. I'm grateful for meeting Jesse and how nice his family has been to me. They all make me feel so comfortable like I'm right at home. I'm grateful to have a job in this terrible economy and especially one that I enjoy. I've had 2 jobs this year plus a pretty impressive side gig babysitting all of which are jobs that involve teaching, taking care of, and helping others... 3 things that I enjoy most. If I couldn't work with kids or help others in someway I think I would really hate my job. I've worked in an office building... boring, so not for me and I've worked in retail... aggravating, so not for me either. I am not meant to sell things to people. I believe I'm meant to help others. The best moment of my past year was probably in my Catholic Charities job when I got a small 4yr old girl to finally open up and talk after over a month of nothing. It was such an amazing feeling to have her talk to me. It felt good to be the person she trusted enough to open up to and I'm so grateful to Catholic Charities and Ms. Doris my boss for giving me that opportunity. I'm grateful for having good friends and co-workers who help me out while my car is incopasitated. I'm grateful for having a nice apartment and good neighbors. I guess what I'm getting at is I need to take some of my own advice and think about what I'm thankful and happy for this holiday season not what I'm worried about. Maybe we should all do that. Let's all be thankful that we are healthy and have loved ones to share the holidays with. Happy Holidays everyone.

My car is on it's last legs... so to speak

Unfortunately my bad car luck has come back to haunt me. It turns out my starter is bad. Luckily I added road side assistance to my insurance for $15 extra every 6months. I got a free tow out of that and a friend of ours family has a shop that's less than 5miles from our place. We trust them and I know we're not being ripped off, but sadly it's still going to cost $300. Merry Christmas to us! The car should be ready on Monday and we leave for Iowa on Tuesday barring any snow storm troubles. I'm so grateful that we have good friends and nice co-workers who've been letting us bum rides all week. It probably helps that we've been feeding them homemade breakfast burritos every morning.

*Side note... Breakfast burritos are easy to make and quite tasty. You can make them any way you want and then wrap them individually and freeze them for an easy grab and go breakfast. Ours microwave in 2mins. We scrambled and seasoned 14 eggs. Diced and fried 2 medium potatoes, 1/2 a yellow onion, and 1 green pepper. We added 1 bag of mexi-cheese, 12 tortillas, and salsa. We made 6 with salsa and 6 with out. We would have added meat had we thawed out any bacon or sausage that my parents brought us, but sadly we didn't think of that in time. Next time. Yum I can't wait!

It's been a while...

Things have sure been busy around here. I've been working overtime trying to get our offices rearranged, because the ED staff is finally getting new desks. Yippey! I'm also still working my 2nd job on Wednesday nights with Catholic Charities, but sadly our class is coming to an end. This Wednesday is our last. I will probably join up with another class again after the first of the year. I've been babysitting like crazy lately as well. There's a family that I met through a nanny website that I've been babysitting for on occasion for the last year and a half and they gave my name to someone, who gave my name to someone else, and so on. It's spread like wildfire recently, so much so that I'm going to have to learn to say no. How do you say no to a desperate family who just moved here and has no family... plus they pay well? I made $105 the other night and the kids were amazing. It's good side job for occasional money, but I don't want to get to sucked in. I would like to have a personal life as well. The Special Event's coordinator has left the museum and her job is the only other one I would want. I went for the job and was the only internal candidate to apply. Things were looking up until I was pulled aside and told the museum wouldn't be hiring anyone to fill her position until next fiscal year (July), because the economy is bad, etc... It was a total bummer, but I'm still hopeful for July. If I get this job it will be a pay increase and a normal Monday-Friday schedule, only occasional nights and weekends for events and rentals. If it doesn't work out then I think I'm going to look into preschool teaching next fall. I love my job, but I'm ready for new challenges. Since they aren't filling the position right away some of her daily duties are being split amongst people and I will now be taking on the Community Outreach projects. This means I will be planning all the projects for fairs and festivals around Denver. The museum is teaming up with Red Cross which means as a supervisor I will be trained to be a RedCross trainer. Peter (the other supervisor) and I will be teaching Babysitter BootCamps starting next year. Basically anyone who wants to get CPR & First Aid certified as a babysitter can take classes through us. I'm kind of excited about this.

Jesse has been busy too. He recently finished up his overtime stint and has moved his focus on to his band. They recorded in Oct, but haven't had the funds to get it professionally printed just yet. They're also working on printing up more t-shirts, but Jesse and his friend have been having a hard time making that work. Faulty materials and sub-zero temperatures haven't made for very good results. They might not have new shirts and CD's until Spring now.

Let's see the weekend after Halloween we had visitors, our good friends Moe & Ben came from Taos and stayed for the weekend. I ended up throwing a last minute dinner party for 8 after working an extra long day at work. It was exhausting, but fun. My parents came and stayed with us for Thanksgiving which was nice. I made my first turkey ever and even though I cooked it upside down half the time (it's true) it turned out fabulous. I was quite proud of myself minus the stupid mistake of course. This morning we walked to the post office today to mail our Christmas cards and packages to their respective address. It was around $40 for everything.YIKES! We've been researching ways to get to the airport for our Christmas travels. I really wish DIA was closer to town. What a pain and who knew it would be so expensive. With the cost of checking our bags and now parking we're spending another $60 on top of our ticket price. To make matters worse we have to fly into Omaha since it's nearly $300 a ticket cheaper than flying to DesMoines. I'm becoming worried about our holiday travel now, because my lovely beast of a car wouldn't start this morning. I really hope it's just because of the sudden cold snap. It was 50 som degrees on Saturday, then 17 degrees on Sunday, and today it's -4 degrees or more. I'm going to give my car a break, hopefully it will warm up and then I'm going to get my neighbor (Chris) the mechanic to give it a look. Everyone cross your fingers and hope it's not something worse, because I just can't afford that right now. Knowing my luck it's probably bad. I seem to have the worst luck when it comes to cars. If I had the money I would buy a new one, but I don't. I think that's going to be our goal before next winter though. #1 priority new car (not brand new, just new to us).Look out Iowans here we come Dec 24th - the 29th we'll be crashing with my parents &/or Dave & Chelsey.


Hope you're all having a Happy Holiday Season!

Love,

Erin & Jesse

Photos from top to bottom
1. Clarice the reindeer and her friend the elf (Santa came to the museum with Clarice, but I missed getting his photo, too many kiddos standing in line & I had to work)
2. Jesse & I sitting on our couch. We tried to take this for our Christmas card to send everyone, but decided to go with a different picture.
3. Jesse & I and my mom & dad hanging out in our living room (no we aren't minimalist, he is... if it was up to me we would have pictures all over our walls)
4. (L-R) Amanda (one of my friends who was married in Oct), Moe (our friend from Taos, who was staying the weekend with us), Me, and Tana (another friend who got married in Oct)

More Halloween pics.

I couldn't resist. Princesses dancing.

Snow White is always a hit! Happy Halloween

Halloween is Big around here and I love it. It gets kind of crazy even slightly stressful, but getting to see all those adorable little ones in their costumes makes it all worth while. 2 1/2 years ago when I started @ the Museum and they told me about Trick or Treat Street I would have never imagined it was as BIG as it really is. When I first started I bought a Snow White costume, back then my hair was short and quite dark. Kids loved it! It was perfect. Since then I've brought the costume out on several occasions and every year on Halloween for sure. This year was no exception. The day isn't over yet, but I needed a break from the floor so I thought I'ld make my post now (I may be sleeping the weekend away). So far I've had my picture taken with Tigger, a hot pepper, a couple witches, a lion, Mulan, some Pharohs, Curious George, Winnie the Pooh, Dorothy, several mini-Snow Whites, and a bout a milion other princesses. It's always a blast seeing the kids faces light up when they see me. Yesterday I helped set up a theater show by The Littleauge http://www.myspace.com/thelittleague (a hip hop performer for kids, put on by an amazing former preschool teacher) while in the show they have a dance contest to give away a free CD. Of course I had to get out on the dance floor and encourage the kids to bust a move and when I did the little girls came a running. Soon I had my own circle of dancers all wanting to hold my hand. It was pretty adorable, but oh so exhausting. I think I may have litterally danced my behind off. I guess the $30 I spent on this dress 3 years ago was really worth it. It may have been the best $30 I've ever bought. HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!

Photos from Top to Bottom

1. Snow White and the Evil Queen (a former co-worker) Halloween 2006 my first TOTS

2. Snow White Halloween 2007

3. Curious George as a Cowboy & Me as Snow White Storytime for TOTS 2008

4. Our Adorable neighbor Christopher as a Lion getting his photo taken with me. 2008

5. One of the many mini-Snow White's getting her photo with me this year.

And so it begins...

It's Trick or Treat Street Time @ the Museum (the museum's BIG halloween event). Today was Decade Day and I went for 80's. I bought canvas shoes and decorated them with Pacman, Saved By the Bell, and New Kids on the Block. I borrowed a New Kids on the Block shirt from a friend and made a pretty awesome outfit out of thrift store finds and misc items I had at home. Today is only day one of the Museum's Halloween celebration and I'm already exhausted. Stay tuned for more to come.

Photos top to bottom
1. My lovely socks and shoes (you have to see them in person to really appreciated them)
2. Me showing off my 80's gear
3. Tenille and I posing for the camera

Ideal Fathers...

Jesse's band
They've been together since early 2006 and ironically they played their first show on Father's day that same year. Jesse is the lead vocalist, occasional tambourine player, & mad clapper, Paddy is the drummer, Adam is the guitarist and back up vocalist, and Mike is the bassist. They lost their original bassist and back up vocalist when Vinnie, the first Ideal Father, hurt his hand in an accident @ work last year. Loosing Vinnie was really hard for all of them, but after some time off they managed to bounce back with the addition of their good friend Mike. Since then they've played several shows with great write ups in local papers, been mentioned on CU Boulder's radio station, and been in the Under Ground Music Showcase. Jesse just left this morning to go to the recording studio for the next couple days with guys. They're working on making their first recordings that will hopefully be done and ready before Christmas. It's taken them a long time to come up with the cash for the recording, so they're all very excited. It took tons of low paying gigs, one bake sale (where I made some amazing mint/chocolate bars), a few shirt sales, and one Under Ground Music showcase, but they finally made it. I'm going to add links to their Myspace (where you can listen to their music) and several other web pages where you can read reviews. Enjoy!

myspace
backbeat
the night we met
DPUMS
shows
last.fm

Videos available on their myspace under the video link.

Photos top to bottom:
1. (L-R) Adam, Paddy, Jesse, Mike
2. The guys playing @ the Under Ground Music Showcase
3. (L-R) Mike, Adam
4. Jesse
5. (L-R) Adam, Jesse

October thus far...

Oct 2008 Several of my friends are getting married, so there are lots of weddings to go to. We're planning Halloween costumes and both working lots of overtime. In late Sept the Museum started being open late one night a week and I recently started a 2nd job through Catholic Charities on Wednesday evenings, so that's been keeping me busy. For my 2nd job I work with another teacher playing, crafting, and teaching a group of kids while their grownups take parenting classes and have some support group time, so far I'm loving it. Just yesterday we got back from Utah. We drove to his grandparent's house in Ogden to celebrate his niece Nasia's baptism and 8th birthday. It was a long drive, but we had a nice visit with part of Jesse's family that he hadn't seen in ages and I had never met. As visible in the pictures above... Jesse's niece and cousin seemed to really like me, so much so they decided to play beauty parlour with me and do my hair and make-up. Now we're both preparing for a busy couple weeks. Jesse's band will be recording soon, I have another wedding to go to, we have company staying with us next weekend, I've got lots of overtime coming up with Halloween and before you know it the other holidays will be here. I really can't wait for the next couple weeks to be over... I'm already exhausted.

Photos top to bottom:
1. Erin, Jesse, Bobbi (Jesse's Mom)
2. Kyle (Jesse's nephew), Jesse
3. Erin, Nasia (Jesse's niece)
4. Erin, Jesse
5. (L-R) Nasia, Kaylee (Jesse's cousin), Erin

The last 2 months...

Aug 2008 We find an apartment after months of hunting and we move into our new place together. On the 2nd Ideal Fathers performed in the Denver Post's Underground Music Showcase for the best local bands. That same week they also had a write up as the Critic's choice in the Westword paper and Jesse was mentioned by name (this made his day, week, maybe even year). This time he was the giddy school girl trying to contain himself.

Sept 2008 We celebrated Jesse's 26th b-day by going to a Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds show, going out to a fancy dinner, having a b-day/house warming party, and then we went to Taos, NM together to visit Moe and Ben. In Taos we went on a hike and Jesse went Rock Climbing while I kept my two feet safely planted on the ground and took pictures of the daredevils. Urban Farms comes to the Children's Museum and I fall in love with farm animals all over again.

***Urban Farms is an actual working farm (non-profit) that teaches inner city kids about farm life. They mainly deal with school groups, but are open to the public on weekends. They teach classes about gardening, spinning wool, knitting, horse back riding, and much more. It's a really amazing place. http://www.theurbanfarm.org/

Photos top to bottom:
1. Ideal Father's @ the Under Ground Music Showcase
2. Newspaper clipping from Westword
3. Miss Apple (a Scottish Highland cow from the Urban Farm), Erin
4. Erin, Jesse having dinner for Jesse's birthday
5. Erin, Jesse hiking in Taos, NM